3 Tips For Reducing Turnover At Your Company

Is your company losing talent? Are your employees quitting and moving on to your competitors?

Here are some tips for reducing turnover at your company from Donna Levin, VP Care.com Workplace Solutions and Co-Founder of Care.com.

1. Understanding WHY employees leave in the first place.

If you’re having retention problems, you need to think about WHY your employees are running for the door.

“People don’t leave companies; they leave bad situations, dead-end jobs, and micromanagers,” says Levin. “They leave to find greener pastures, professional development and work-life balance.”

Understanding what’s triggering people to quit in favor of a new opportunity will help you improve deep-seeded problems within your culture. Fixing these problems will make recruiting and retaining talent much easier for you...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Ariella Coombs (www.careerealism.com)

Why Character Should Matter to Your Firm and to Your Employees

You probably expended considerable time and energy developing your firm’s reputation and cultivating a professional image. Well and good. Character represents a third key element and is vital even in the midst of tax season … especially in the midst of tax season.

Character, it has been said, is who you are when no one else is watching. As an accountant, what is your character like? How about that of your firm?

Kindness for Its Own Sake
A friend of mine returning to a conference in Nashville, Tennessee, did not have the appropriate change to give the taxi driver, and this particular cabbie did not accept credit cards. My friend was $3 short and flat out of options...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Jeff Davidson (www.accountingweb.com)

Millennials Want to Be Coached at Work

...The young people in your office...crave — and respond to — a good, positive coach, who can make all the difference in their success. In a global survey that we at SuccessFactors conducted in 2014 in partnership with Oxford Economics, 1,400 Millennials told us they want more feedback from their managers...most Millennials want feedback at least monthly, whereas non-Millennials are comfortable with feedback less often. Overall, Millennials want feedback 50% more often than other employees. They also told us that their number one source of development is their manager, but only 46% agreed that their managers delivered on their expectations for feedback...

Our subsequent conversations with hundreds of Millennials made it clear that what they want most from their managers isn't more managerial direction, per se, but more help with their own personal development. One Millennial we spoke with summed up a theme we heard again and again: “I would like to move ahead in my career. And to do that, it’s very important to be in touch with my manager, constantly getting coaching and feedback from him so that I can be more efficient and proficient.”

To read full article, click here.

Source: Karie Willyerd (www.hbr.org)

How to Help Your Team Bounce Back from Failure

No one likes to fail. And while we all know the importance of learning from mistakes, both individuals and teams can struggle to bounce back from big blunders. Whether it was a project that didn’t meet its targets or an important deadline that you all missed, what can you do to help your employees recover? How can you help them see the experience as an opportunity for growth instead of the kiss of death?

What the Experts Say It’s often harder to lead a team past a failure than it is to help one person. “People are coming into projects with different expectations, perspectives, levels of investment, and different things at stake,” explains Susan David, a founder of the Harvard/McLean Institute of Coaching and author of the HBR article, “Emotional Agility.” “Some people may be very resilient and others might feel more bruised,” Ben Dattner, an organizational psychologist and author of The Blame Game. “All the things that individuals fall prey to — misattribution and rationalization — are compounded on a team and add exponential complexity to the process.” It doesn’t matter whether one person on your team is at fault or if everyone bears some of the responsibility, it’s your job as the manager to help the entire group move on. Here’s how.

First, take control of your own emotions...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Amy Gallo (www.hbr.org)

7 Tasks Successful Leaders Never Delegate

I’ve made the point before that knowing when and how to delegate is a trait of good leaders. It shows trust in your employees and ensures that you are focusing your own time and skills in your zone of genius — the tasks that only you can do.

But I’d like to argue that there are some things that should never be delegated because they will make you too far removed from your team, open you up for criticism, or ultimately paint you in a bad light.

If you’ve delegated any of the following tasks, I suggest you move these back into your zone of genius:

1. Core functions or responsibilities
   Neither a company nor an individual employee should ever outsource their core competencies — the tasks that add the most value. As an employee, if you outsource these tasks, your boss may wonder why he needs to keep you around at all. As a company, you may find yourself held hostage if you outsource and your partner leaves or demands more money...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Bernard Marr (www.linkedin.com)

What to Do If Your Team Is in a Rut

Another brainstorming session, another slew of tired ideas. Your team is in a rut, but what can you do about it? How can you push everyone to be more creative? Where should you seek inspiration? What’s the best way to bring in new perspectives? And finally: how do you prevent the group from getting stuck again?

What the Experts Say
Teams get stale from time to time for all sorts of reasons. After all, everyone is “seeing the same data, interacting with the same people, and having the same conversations, so it’s no surprise that the ideas coming out feel as though they’ve all been done before,” says Scott Anthony, the managing partner of Innosight and the author of The First Mile. But you can get your people back into the groove with a little work, says Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, a partner at The Innovation Architects, the advisory firm, and the coauthor of Innovation as Usual.  “Sometimes you need to rethink what you’re doing.” Here are some ways to get your team’s creative juices flowing.

Diagnose and fix any obvious problemsThe first step is to “take a step back and diagnose the problem,” suggests Wedell-Wedellsborg. “Observe what’s going on and ask other people’s opinions.” Think about when, where, and how your team has been most innovative in the past. Can you recreate that environment or group dynamic? “Figure out how people share ideas, and how open others are to those ideas,” he says. Also look at ideas that were generated in the past and see if any are worth resuscitating. “Maybe it was a good idea before its time or maybe it was an idea that was not managed well,” says Anthony. “You’re not looking for the perfect idea, it’s what you do with the idea that matters...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Rebecca Knight (www.hbr.org)

8 Deadly Ways to Kill Employee Motivation

If you want to make sure you're providing your employees with an environment in which they can thrive, check your workplace for these motivation killers.

1. Toxic people.

If you've ever spent time with truly toxic people, you know how destructive and exhausting they can be. Toxic people spread negativity and suffocate the positive. Let them find a new home--or, if that's not possible, make sure policies and supervision are in place to minimize their damage.

2. No professional development.

Everyone needs to know that they are learning and growing. Without that, the workplace grows static and dull. Professional development for each of your employees allows them grow in their careers and also to know that both the organization and you have an investment in their success...

3. Lack of vision.

A clearly communicated vision sets direction and lets people know where to focus. Without it, even the best employees are less effective, because it's hard to excel if you don't understand the big picture.

4. Wasted time.

If you have the kind of workplace where meetings are called for no real reason and emails are sent to everyone with irrelevant information, it's likely that your workers are deeply frustrated. Show people you value them by showing them you value their time.

5. Inadequate communication.

When communication is poor, people spend half their time second-guessing what they're doing, critical tasks are missed, nonessential jobs are duplicated, information is locked into silos, and destructive rumors thrive. A clear flow of communication benefits everyone.

6. Vertical management.

If you can remember being in a situation where your ideas and input weren't valued or even heard, where it was "keep quiet and do what I say," you know how hard it is to do anything more than a grudging minimum. The more collaboration, the more investment and the more motivation.

7. Lack of appreciation.

When hard work or extraordinary results go unrecognized, when even everyday thanks are unexpressed, people grow uninspired and apathetic. You can reward your employees without spending a dime; it can be as simple as saying "thank you."

8. Bad leadership.

Bad leaders harm every member of their team and their entire organization. Even the best employees need effective leadership to excel. Start with developing your own leadership, then hire and grow the best leaders at every level. It's the best thing you can do to improve your workplace for everyone.

If you recognize any of these deathly killers in your workplace, it's up to you to do everything in your power to become part of the solution. Remember, great people do not stay long in bad workplaces.

To read full article, click here.

Source: Lolly Daskal (www.inc.com)

Five Things That Repel Candidates

All the data shows that we're about to enter a period of massive talent shortage. The events of the global recession have acted as a bit of a smoke-screen to the underlying facts - more and more businesses are growing, and there is less specialist talent.

As unemployment is falling, so too are there other forces at work. More start-ups than even before. The increase of remote working. And perhaps most influential of all: the effect of social - with the internet, most candidates have made up their minds on a company waaayyy before they turn up to interview (if they decide to attend in the first place).

All this means that hiring managers need to be more careful than ever when interviewing. News travels faster than ever - your reputation is more important than even before.

Here are five things that all hiring managers must avoid:

1) Not following up quickly (or even worse not following up at all)...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Jas Singh (www.linkedin.com)

Before You Hire Anyone, Ask These 2 Questions

Building a business is scary, challenging, frustrating, but above all, ultimately fun. It's a rush to know your company is getting bigger.

And because it is, and because the work tends to pile up so far so fast, you might be in a hurry to add people to your team. That's understandable.

But whether this is your first hire or your 40th, it's a good idea to ask these two questions before you start issuing anyone a W-2.

1. What are we missing?

You always want complementary skills. Some people only think this is required at the beginning, when you look to find a Ms. Outside to your Mr. Inside. But they are not thinking big enough.

Yes, of course, when you are first getting under way, you want someone who offsets your weaknesses with his or her strengths.

But even when you are growing, you want to keep that concept in mind. Companies, departments, and teams take on characteristics of their own and they can become over-indexed in an area. You can end up with too many number crunchers or too many people who are great at strategy but not enough who are implementers. Balance is important at every stage of a company's growth. When things get out of whack, problems usually follow.

And that brings us to point 2...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Paul B. Brown (www.inc.com)

Here's one thing great bosses should never say

That person who is our boss has a tremendous impact on us at work — far beyond the obvious things like which office we are assigned to, or the jobs we do each day. The better the boss, the more engaged team members are, and the better their performance.

In one study of more than 2,500 leaders in a large financial services company, the engagement, satisfaction, and commitment levels of people working for the organization's worst leaders was only 4%, while the engagement, satisfaction, and commitment levels of people working for the organization's best leaders was an astronomical 92%.

When you're a boss, what you say matters. Your words can have an immediate — and long-lasting — effect on your people, and as a result, on your customers, suppliers, shareholders, and community.

While there are many things the best leaders say to the members of their team to inspire them to greater levels of engagement and performance, there are some things you should just never say — particularly this one thing: 

"I give up."

To read full article, click here.

Source: The Build Network (www.businessinsider.com)

7 Ways Highly Successful People Achieve More

Some people get more done than others — a lot more.

Sure, they work hard. And they work smart. (While "smarter, not harder" is fine, smarter and harder is way better.) But they also possess a few other qualities that make a major impact on their performance:

1. They do the work in spite of disapproval or ridicule.

Work too hard, strive too hard, appear to be too ambitious, try to stand out from the crowd... and the average person resents you. It's a lot easier and much more comfortable to dial it back and fit in.

Pleasing the (average-performing) crowd is something highly productive people don't worry about. (They may think about it, but then they keep pushing on.) They hear the criticism, they take the potshots, they endure the laughter or derision or even hostility... and they keep on measuring themselves and their efforts by their own standards.

And, in the process, they achieve what they want to achieve. (Which is really all that matters...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Jeff Haden (www.businessinsider.com)

7 Valuable Leadership Lessons From LinkedIn's Billionaire Founder

After getting a master's degree in philosophy from Oxford in 1993, Reid Hoffman was ready to enter the world of academia. But a job at Apple started a career in tech that eventually led him to cofound LinkedIn in 2002...

...Entrepreneur and author Ben Casnocha has worked closely with (Reid) Hoffman since 2010, collaborating on the books "The Start-up of You" and "The Alliance," and serving as Hoffman's chief of staff from 2012 to 2014.

In Casnocha's new blog post, "10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: Lessons on Business and Life," he reflects on the time spent with his mentor. We've summarized seven of the leadership lessons he learned from Hoffman.

1. Recognize that everyone has flaws, but acknowledge their strengths.

Casnocha writes that Hoffman doesn't fall into the easy trap of seeing people in a binary way, as in brilliant or an idiot, ethical or conniving.

Hoffman, Casnocha writes, "appreciates the full spectrum of strengths and weaknesses of a particular person. He'll comment on a friend's character flaw — say, self-centeredness — but in the next breath note one of their unique strengths. Flaws that cause others to completely disengage are, for Reid, 'navigable' (to use a Reid-ism) en route to their better side...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Richard Feloni (www.businessinsider.com)